Family displaced in Warwick house fire
By: Amanda Pitts
alpitts@abc6.com
@APittsABC6
WARWICK, R.I. (WLNE) – A family is left without a home after a fire tore through their Overton Street residence in the Oakland Beach area of Warwick just before noon on Thursday.
The Warwick Fire Department got the call around 11:45 a.m. and arrived to find the second floor of the home and the roof engulfed in flames.
Fire officials said no one was home at the time, and there were no injuries.
It took firefighters a half hour to knock down the fire, and an hour to put out hot spots as they said they had to dig through clothing.
“The inside of the house was very overcrowded with clothing and furniture. Could have been a lot worse than it was,” said Bryan Barlow of the Warwick Fire Department.
The couple that lived at the home has resided there for over 30 years.
“It is shocking. It’s unimaginable. You don’t expect anything like this to happen to you until it happens.”
Their son, Tyrell Johnson, said all that matters is that his parents are okay.
“It can be rebuilt again, but you can’t rebuild lives, so as long as they’re okay, that’s the most important thing.”
Johnson said the family’s tenant, who lives in a building behind the home, told him he heard a loud popping sound from a telephone wire.
“He said he saw it start sparking, it jumped off the pole and the wire started bouncing around.”
Fire officials said they saw a live wire in the road when they arrived, and a wire resting on the home.
The cause is under investigation. The Red Cross is assisting the family displaced.
(c) WLNE-TV 2019
